172: When Your Identity Is Tied to Success | With Dr. Janet Abadir Part 1
Finding Your Worth When the Career, Title, or Life You Built Changes
What happens when the thing you've spent your entire life becoming is suddenly taken away?
You worked hard. You succeeded. You built the career, earned the respect, and became someone others could depend on.
Then the door closes anyway.
For Dr. Janet S. Abadir, losing her position as a general surgeon after 24 years in medicine wasn't simply a career change. It exposed something much deeper: how closely her identity, security, and worth had become connected to achievement.
In Part One of this two-part conversation, Janet shares how growing up in an Egyptian immigrant family shaped her understanding of honor, shame, success, and failure and how an early determination to “never fail again” contributed to a life of high achievement and performance-based worth.
When her hospital contract wasn't renewed, what initially felt like failure became an unexpected invitation to discover who she was apart from what she accomplished.
Sometimes losing what defined you creates the space to discover who you were before you ever earned the title.
Key Takeaways
- Our worth can become attached to good things without us realizing it. A meaningful career, ministry, leadership position, or accomplishment can quietly become part of how we determine whether we're valuable.
- Perfectionism and achievement may have deeper roots. What looks like drive can sometimes be connected to fear of failure, rejection, or shame.
- The beliefs formed in childhood can follow us into adulthood. What we learned about love, acceptance, success, and belonging can continue influencing how we live and relate.
- Loss can reveal what success allowed us to avoid seeing. Sometimes we don't recognize how much identity we've placed in something until it's gone.
- A closed door doesn't mean God has finished writing the story. We can grieve what we've lost while remaining open to where God may be leading next.
In Part Two, Janet shares what happened when she surrendered the career she had spent decades building and began discovering a new understanding of identity, freedom, family, and calling.
Watch Part Two: When God Changes Your Calling
Connect With Dr. Janet S. Abadir
Janet S. Abadir, MD practiced general surgery for 24 years before becoming a writer, Bible teacher, speaker, and coach. She and her husband and three teenage sons live in Kodiak, Alaska, and attend Frontier Baptist Church.
She has been called to speak the message of freedom to God's people. Her extensive knowledge of Scripture, paired with professional skills and compassionate love for others, equips her as a powerful instrument for God's Kingdom in her community.
Connect with Janet:
https://janetabadir.com/
Get Janet's book:
Drink from the River of Delight: Welcome to God's Healing Space in His Word
https://a.co/d/05AyzsJa
Download The Unstuck Key™
If this conversation brings up a recent moment when you felt rejected, criticized, overlooked, unsuccessful, or emotionally activated, don't rush past it.
Download the free Unstuck Key™ audio guide and Relationship Activation Worksheet to process a recent trigger, become curious about what may be underneath your reaction, and consider how you want to move forward.
Get The Unstuck Key™: https://itsyourstorytotell.mykajabi.com/why-do-i-keep-reacting-this-way
Explore the Transformation Academy
The Transformation Academy offers free resources, Bible studies, workshops, courses, and coaching opportunities to help you grow in your faith, emotional health, relationships, and leadership.
Explore the Transformation Academy:
https://www.itsyourstorytotell.com
About It's Your Story to Tell
It's Your Story to Tell is a podcast where courageous people share the hardest parts of their stories and how they found hope, healing, and transformation.
Through honest conversations rooted in faith, neuroscience, and trauma-informed principles, we explore what it means to overcome adversity, build healthier relationships, strengthen emotional resilience, and discover that your past does not have to define your future.
Every story shared is an invitation to believe that healing is possible—and that your story matters.
Explore the podcast and free resources:
https://www.itsyourstorytotell.com
About the Host
Megan Babcock is a Board Certified Holistic Nurse Coach, Board Certified Master Mental Health Coach, Certified Trauma and Crisis Mental Health Coach, Certified Brain Health Coach, speaker, bestselling author, and founder of It's Your Story to Tell.
Drawing from more than two decades of experience in healthcare, neuroscience-informed coaching, and her own healing journey, Megan helps women uncover the hidden relational patterns that keep them stuck so they can communicate with confidence, build healthier relationships, and flourish in marriage, parenting, leadership, and life.
She is the creator of The Unstuck Key™, a practical framework that helps people move from overwhelm and reactivity toward curiosity, compassion, and intentional choice.
Learn more:
https://www.itsyourstorytotell.com
